


Silent Night

by SherlockianMystery



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Brain tumor, Gen, Major character death - Freeform, have some tissues, just sadness in general
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 18:37:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockianMystery/pseuds/SherlockianMystery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmas Eve and Tony Stark is all alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tony

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off a picture a friend of mine drew. If I could find the picture I would show it to you guys (or at least link it) but I can't. Sorry for the feels in advance.

Tony sat on the edge of the bed, head in his hands as he thought back over the events of the last few months. He laughed at the thought that a brain tumor was going to take out the great Tony Stark, he had always assumed it would be Loki, or Victor von Doom, or Skurge. Had thought he'd go out fighting, saving the world, and proving to Steve that he wasn't the heartless playboy he pretended to be. He had spent his whole life looking up to the Captain, had always wanted to prove to his father that he could be just as important and special as Steve Rogers had once been.

Now, however, he could only think about how the team was probably out somewhere celebrating the holiday. Maybe at Avengers HQ sitting around the fireplace, or by the tree, laughing and joking about the battles they had fought, the adventures they had had. None of them thinking about him, none of them worried that he would spend Christmas alone. That he would die alone. After all, that had been the reason he'd pushed them all away. He hadn't wanted them to feel sorry for him, to walk around with those looks of pity constantly plastered to their faces. Hadn't wanted to face their tears, their sadness. It was much easier to just push them all away, put a wall between himself and the rest of the team, and he was slightly surprised at how easy it had been to do it. He wondered how long it would take them to realize that he wasn't going to be over for Christmas dinner, to realize that he wasn't late, but dead. He wondered if they would even care at all.

He looked over at the desk in the corner of his room, checking for what seemed like the thousandth time that the letter he had written explaining everything was still there. He wanted them to know exactly what had happened to him so that they didn't jump to conclusions and assume that someone had broken in and killed him in his sleep.

Climbing into his bed, he sighed. This was it, his final few hours. He thought back over the day, making sure that he had done everything he'd wanted to. He'd worked in his lab, making sure that Bruce would have everything he needed for his research when he came in, had made a few new arrows for Barton to use for his next battle, and had even made another upgrade to the Captain America suit. It would be stronger, and stand up better to a few more enemies than the previous one had. Then he had taken a quick walk around the city before stopping for lunch at the Shawarma place down the street. He had then come home and programed Jarvis to start answering to Pepper, as she would be the next owner of his company, the one to keep the company in business for far longer than he could have ever managed. He leaned back against the headboard and took another deep breath.

"Jarvis, lights off,"

  
"Yes, sir," he heard as the lights dimmed and the windows darkened, keeping out the light of the city.

  
"And Jarvis?"  


"Yes, sir?"  


"Shutdown, Jarvis"  


"Sir, I don't think that to be wise. "  


"Contact Dr. Banner in the morning, he'll make sure you're running smoothly."  


"Sir-"  


"Please, Jarvis. I want to be alone for this."  


"...yes, sir. Goodnight, sir."  


"Goodnight, Jarvis," he whispered as the tears started to fall. He closed his eyes, wondering if it would take long, if it would hurt at all. He took one last breath, and was gone.


	2. Bruce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce is the first to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is from Bruce's point of view. Sort of.

Bruce groaned as he slowly entered the waking world. Last night had been crazy, and he knew that he would pay for it this morning. To be fair, though, he hadn't thought that Christmas dinner could be as awkward as it had turned out to be with the other Avengers. He supposed that without Tony there making his usual jokes the others really had nothing to say, or bond over while defending their honor from Tony's jabs. He had perhaps drunk more than he should have in order to ease the tension that had started to build, and now he was regretting that decision. Well, he was regretting that he hadn't thought to leave himself some pain pills nearby for when he woke up.

He was just getting up when his phone made the noise it always made when it was about to die, and he took a moment to decide whether or not he wanted to just let it die. He didn't. Instead of heading to the bathroom for a nice, hot, soothing shower he was now on a mission to find his missing phone charger. If you counted it being in his side table drawer as 'missing', which he did. He plugged the phone in and was surprised to see there was a missed call. He held the phone to his ear, careful to keep it from unplugging itself, and was surprised to hear Jarvis.

"Dr. Banner, I regret to inform you that you will need to come to Stark Tower sooner than usual to deal with a situation that will have no doubt gone noticed by you and the rest of the team." With that the call cut off, leaving Bruce wondering what was so important that Jarvis felt the need to call. It couldn't have been anything good if Tony wasn't calling and asking for his assistance in some project or other and then dropping the news afterwards like it was unimportant. With that thought in mind he set his phone down and headed off to take a quick shower so he could see what was going on and hopefully fix the mess before SHIELD found out what was going on.

A half hour later and he was taking the elevator up to Tony's private section of the Tower. The ding sounded and he stepped out of the elevator only to be greeted by silence. It wasn't what he had expected, and the lack of Jarvis offering him a greeting and letting him know where Tony was had him second guessing if he was in the right tower or not.

"Jarvis? Tony? Whatever is going on isn't funny, Tony, and I am clearly not amused, so stop acting like a child and say something." He looked around, waiting for something, anything, so that the cold dread that was starting to work its way through his chest would go away. He turned towards the bar, heading for the panel on the wall that he knew was there so he could at least bring Jarvis back online. Maybe the AI would know what was going on and could tell him why he was here. He flipped open the panel door and typed in the code Tony had given him a while back and waited for the system to reboot itself. He didn't have to wait long as the lights came on and the hum that seemed to always be in the background started up again.

"Good morning, Dr. Banner."

"Good morning, Jarvis. Can you tell me where Tony is? Also, why have you been offline?" It might have just been him, but for a moment Bruce could have sworn that the AI was hesitating.

"Mr. Stark is in his bedroom, Sir. He had me shut off last night, only coming back online to leave a message on your voicemail. Would you like me to notify the rest of the Avengers?" Bruce could only nod as the dread settled in his stomach at the words. He began to slowly make his way to Tony's bedroom, anxious to see why the arrogant genius had not greeted Bruce himself. It was out of character for the man, and Bruce was suddenly reluctant to find the man. With a deep breath, he opened the bedroom door. It was dark, and he thought about ordering Jarvis to turn on the light, before realizing that he could see well enough without it.

Tony lay in the middle of the bed, looking almost peaceful for once, as if he'd simply fallen asleep. Bruce knew that wasn't the case, however, and took the steps necessary to reach the bed. He grabbed Tony's wrist and felt for a pulse, but there was none, and the genius was ice cold. He let the wrist fall from his grasp and took a seat on the bed, doing his best to keep his composure. He felt the tears threatening to fall and knew that he wouldn't be able to stop them, not this time.

"Jarvis, why didn't he tell us?"

  
"Sir, I believe he did not wish you to watch him die."

  
"That makes it worse, don't you think?"

"Yes, sir."


	3. Steve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I just had this idea that because Steve is sort of the leader of the Avengers, he'd be the first person that Bruce would think to call...

It took him a while to come to terms with the fact that Tony was gone. When he had first gotten the call from Bruce, he couldn't believe it. Wouldn't believe it, in fact, and had headed straight over there to stop whatever prank Tony had decided to play this time. It wasn't until he had seen the expression on Bruce's face that it had sunk it. The man looked heartbroken, tears still steadily streaming down his face, eyes red and puffy. Steve had simply nodded and pulled him into a hug, letting go before it could get awkward and taking a seat next to him on the couch.

"So it's true, then," he said softly. It seemed wrong, somehow, to disturb the sombre mood but at the same time the silence also seemed to be worse. He knew that Tony, for all his snarky remarks and inability to take anything seriously, would have wanted to go out with a bang and to see him deprived of that chance made Steve want to find some way to bring the man back just so he could die in the midst of battle, as the hero Steve had always known Tony was. He was also surprised that Tony had managed to keep this from everyone, but he knew he shouldn't be as they whole team had gotten further and further apart as time passed. He took a deep breath and tried to push his emotions down. The rest of the team would need to be alerted, as well as SHIELD, and he knew that Bruce wasn't quite up to doing it just yet. He stood again, pulling out his phone, and turned back to Bruce.

"I'm going to call the rest of the team, they'll want to know about this. Have you called Pepper yet?" He waited until Bruce shook his head to sigh, not knowing how he was going to break the news to the woman, but realizing that she would need to be the first one he called. It was hard to completely push his emotions away, but he was a leader and a soldier, used to getting things done, no matter how hard they were to do. He had fought in tons of battles, led countless men into said battles, and brought most of them back. He could do this, and he would be as gentle as possible when breaking the news. Maybe he'd manage to convince the rest of the team to throw a big party in Tony's memory. That would be just the thing that the man would have wanted, people celebrating his genius and sarcastic wit with one of the parties that the man was always throwing. He nodded to himself and began to dial Pepper's number, readying himself for her tears and denial.

Pepper answered on the first ring, "Steve, what can I do for you? I'm a bit busy at the moment, so can I call you back?" He shook his head, but then realized that she couldn't see him and closed his eyes, which made this easier somehow.

"No, it's important. I have some bad news, Pepper, so you might want to take a seat if you've got one nearby."

"Alright, tell me what's going on, you're starting to worry me."

"It's Tony, he's-"

She cut him off, "You'll have to call Phil, he's the one in charge of Tony while I'm gone and he's the one who gets to clean up the messes Tony makes. What did he do, accidentally piss off the wrong person again?"

"No. He's...he's dead, Pepper. I'm sorry that I've just laid it out, but I don't know how else to break the news, so there it is," he swallowed over the lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat. He waited a few minutes for her to say something, but there was only silence. A minute later he heard the click of her hanging up on him and went to sit back down on the couch. Perhaps he should have let Bruce gain his composure and do it, he was sure that the scientist would have broken the news a lot more gently. He took another deep breath and looked down at his phone to begin dialing the next number.


End file.
